Jon Favreau delivers food porn with new movie Chef

You know him as the man who helmed Hollywood blockbusters such as the first two Iron Man movies and Cowboys & Aliens.

The US actor-director, who broke out in 1996 as the writer and co-star of Swingers, returns to his indie roots with Chef, a film that promises a growling stomach after you walk out of the cinema.

Opening here tomorrow, Chef sees Jon Favreau as Carl, an executive chef of a French restaurant who, over a bad review and a disastrous social media fiasco, finds himself out of work.

Encouraged by his former wife Inez (Sofia Vergara), Carl buys a food truck and embarks on a culinary journey to recover his creativity while mending his relationship with estranged son Percy (Emjay Anthony).

Chef is a work of passion stemming from Favreau's love for food culture, and wanting to do a small movie about balancing career and family.

So he roped in his famous friends - Iron Man stars Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson had small roles - and asked his agency CAA to help finance the movie.

But before Favreau started work on his pet project, the 47-year-old turned to Los Angeles chef and food-truck mogul Roy Choi to give the movie authenticity.

The 44-year-old Korean-American cooking phenomenon, who made his name with the influential Kogi BBQ Food Truck, became the movie's technical adviser and took Favreau under his wing for about six months, which included attending a cooking crash course at a culinary institute and working undercover in Choi's kitchens.

Choi, who subsequently became a co-producer on the film, made Favreau work the line at award-winning chef Wolfgang Puck's eponymous restaurant at the posh Hotel Bel-Air when he teamed up with Puck and David Chang of New York's Momofuku dining empire for a one-night-only, seven-course US$190 (S$240) joint tasting menu.

Apprentices

Said Favreau of his apprenticeship: "I cook a little, but on this one, I was put to the test. Not only did Roy give notes on the script for authenticity, but he oversaw my training.

"He sent me off to culinary school before he allowed me to come in and start doing prep work and working on the line in his kitchen. "I spent many months working under Chef Choi, actually being up in his kitchen, and that gave me tremendous insight as an actor."

He added: "I'm scrambling around doing everything. So it's not unlike the experience in the film, where a guy goes from being a chef with a full crew in the kitchen to a guy working on his own food truck.

"There I am, taking orders, cooking the food and pushing the food out the window."

Favreau found similarities between being a chef and a director, as a chef "is like a director in the kitchen".

It looks like authenticity has been the key to Chef' success, with US film critics and food editors giving it a thumbs up when the movie premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival in March.

Choi told the Denver Post: "The way John wears his hat, the towels, the deli containers, the way we tie our aprons, those subtle nuances make it feel real.

"That was our No. 1 intention, to make sure that cooks and chefs and dishwashers and waiters and front-of-the-house people love this film."